President Uhuru Kenyatta during the State opening of the 11th Parliament supported the need for the country to spark an industrial revolution in the country. He said, “Within the next few years, we must add value to our produce, and manufacture here in Kenya the finished goods that we increasingly use in our homes and businesses.”
Kenya aims to raise increase her regional market share for manufactured products from current 7 to 15 per cent and develop a robust, diversified and globally competitive manufacturing sector (Kenya Vision 2030). The government recognizes that Kenya’s competitiveness in manufacturing lies in agro-industrial exports and therefore targets to increase the capacity of value addition in agro-based industries.
There is a need for Kenya to improve the quality of her products and to brand them for ‘specialty markets’. Coffee and tea are among the main products that the country exports in relatively raw form and would substantially gain if more processing and refining of the products is achieved.